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With Configuration Manager 2012 came a new UI. It took some getting used to but I, for one, have come to like it over the old MMC interface. There is one frustration with it that I hear from customers or see them attempting to workaround all the time. ConfigMgr admins everywhere like to organize their...

Every SCCM admin has figured out how to create a collection with a query rule to dynamically update its membership (you don't just do direct rules I hope). Most admins have also learned that the columns able to be returned by a collection are limited but if you create a query in the Query node of...

A much anticipated feature of System Center Configuration Manager 2012 (SCCM) was RBA (Role Based Administration, also known as RBAC or Role Based Access Control). When this functionality was added to reports it was very welcomed, but also made life a little difficult. When most people, myself included...

For those of you doing OS deployments with System Center Configuration Manager 2012 (I bet the same info below applies to the 2007 version but haven't tested it) you may have gotten into prestart commands to run a custom script or perhaps an HTA to better control and customize the deployment process...

Let me start this blog post by making it clear that this is my opinion, not an official stance. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and this is just mine. Feel free to ignore it if you like.
I often time have discussions with customers about applying hotfixes, and more recently cumulative updates...

RBAC, or Role Based Administration, is new with the SCCM 2012 product. Many customers I encounter are excited with the separation and flexibility it can provide, but daunted by the activity of getting it setup initially. There are a few handy tricks I share time and again with customers at this stage...

With System Center 2012 Configuration Manager Service pack 1 came new ways to manage new OS types. Mac and Unix/Linux management were big additions, but perhaps equally big was the expansion of mobile device management to manage things like iOS devices, Android devices, Windows Phone 8, and Windows...

As much as I love it, it may occasionally be necessary to remove the System Center Configuration Manager client. I recently had a customer who could not get a machine to upgrade from 2007 to 2012 and after attempting many things we did a manual clean down of the client then the 2012 client installed...

If you are new to System Center 2012 Configuration Manager and learning the new Role Based Authentication (RBA) model you may not initially grasp the concept that you grant a user a role and scope to define their security access. I find this gets people a little confused some times. The role is the set...

I had a customer doing some custom permission setting in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager the other week and after adding folks to a few existing security roles all was good except that these limited rights users could not create collections. If you have looked at all the possible perms...

This week Microsoft rolled out a BIG hotfix (90 hotfixes) rollup for Windows 7 SP1 and Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1 . To better understand all the goodness it gives you check out the AskPFEPlat blog or go to the source of one of the guys who helped put it together, my fellow PFE Jeff Stokes . It is being...

DCM was a feature in SCCM 2007 that got renamed to Configuration Management in System Center 2012 Configuration Manager. IN 2007 It saw little use outside of FEP. I encourage customers to take another look at it with SCCM 2012. Now it not only monitors settings and reports back on drift,...

I have all kinds of quotes running through my head today. “To every season, turn, turn, turn” and “it’s so hard to say goodbye”. I have come to another one of those points in life where I am making a good change, but I will miss what I leave behind. I have made the choice...